Newbie guide to character creation
Character Creation There is a very slight (+/-3 points) stat difference based on race; starting stats are determined mainly by your race. Your race choice determines your faction allegiance (either Horde or Alliance), your starting area, and your Racial Traits. What you can do with your character, however, is determined mostly by your choice of class. See the Race and Class pages for discussions of the different race and class options. Race As your character increases in level, these racial differences become negligible with the exception of racial traits, which can be strategically useful in some situations. Therefore, play the race that you find most interesting based upon appearance and racial traits, and don't sweat the little differences. One important note: The Alliance vs. Horde distinction is a very important one, as you will only have very limited interaction with those on the opposing side, outside of combat. If you're playing on a server with friends, you all want to be on the same side so that you can chat, etc., so make sure you all either select Horde races or Alliance races. Also know that on PvP servers you may only play one faction, Alliance or Horde, on a given server, on a given account. Class Can't decide what class to play? Make one of each that sound interesting (you can have up to 10 characters per server), play them up to level 5-15 or so, and decide then. It only takes an hour or two to get the first few levels, and then you'll have a much better idea of what it's like to play each class. You may still miss out on the more significant parts of playing a class, as some important skills are given at level 20 or 30 for the first time, but you will get the gist of the class so that you can at least understand what higher level characters are talking about. Alternatively you may evaluate a Class at high level by installing the Test Realm patch (when available) and choosing a pre-made level 60 character. An important factor to consider when choosing a class is whether there's going to be much demand for characters of your class in groups, and whether it is going to be easy for you to solo (to play alone). Most classes provide good soloing opportunities or partying opportunities, but not both. Generally speaking, classes with clearly defined functionalities such as warrior, priest, and mage are in higher demand, but are less viable solo. In a good solid party, you can find one warrior and one priest. Just as a group is usually not a good one if it doesn't have at least a warrior and a priest, it is not as good as it could be if it doesn't have anyone of any other class. Each of the hybrid classes, druid, paladin, and shaman, have abilities to heal and to fight either by casting or hand-to-hand. All three of these classes, with specific talent point allocations, will make a competent main healer. In addition, all three of these classes provide useful buffs to the other members of the party. Paladins have auras which buff all players in their group within a radius, and beyond that have blessings that they can cast on anyone that give different benefits. Shamans have totems which act similar to auras in that they buff party members near them, but they have very different benefits. Druids can increase the critical hit chance, spell critical chance, or amount of healing done to the entire party, in bear/cat form, moonkin form, or tree of life form, respectively. The other classes warlock, rogue, and hunter, are important as well, but not core to a group. Warlocks have abilities to summon a demon as a pet which will do the player's bidding. Rogues have stealth abilities, can open locks (which is quite important in some areas), and can deal lots of damage by backstabbing. Hunters have aspects which are similar to auras and can buff ranged attacks, increase chances to dodge, and increase their own and their party's speed. To see what the population for each class is on a given server (or all servers) for one faction or another, see Warcraft Realms. Name Picking a name can be tricky. Nearly everyone wants something unique, awe-inspiring and/or "cool". However, the name you pick does tell others something about you. Keep in mind that your name needs to be easily typable in conversations, and that it probably shouldn't clash too much with the warcraft/medieval themed environment. Names that you probably shouldn't pick include: * Legolas - Wrong universe. * Mrcoolguy / Iownyousohard - More than anything, this suggests to other people that you're immature. Maybe you are, but not making it quite so obvious makes it a tad easier to earn the respect of other players. * Agsdjasgd - People will assume that you don't take the game seriously and/or that you're a farmer or ninja. Neither is good for you. * Lukeskywalker - Wrong time, wrong universe. * Onyxia / Illidan / Arthas - No, you are not these lore characters. Picking names like these is a sure-fire way of having a GM enforce a name change on your character. On RP and RP-PvP realms there are additional naming policies active. They can be found at http://www.wow-europe.com/en/policy/namingp1.html under the title "Only applied on Roleplaying Servers" and at http://www.wow-europe.com/en/policy/roleplaying.html. Picking something unobtrusive that actually sounds like a name is usually your best bet. Your name doesn't have to be cool to make you cool. You make your name cool by who you are and what you do; WoW may be massively multi-player, but the core population of any given server is really only a couple hundred players. Rumors, names and stories of feats do travel quickly. Try using the stratics.com WoW name generator or the xenoveritas.org random name generator! Can't decide on a name? Try BehindTheName.com. What if the name you want is already taken? It is commonplace to see several spelling variations on a name, but you should stay away from strange characters (like æ, ø, and œ) that are not common to the language or are in the extended character sets. The biggest reason for this is making it easier for others to type in your name. So, if you find 'Joe' is taken, don't replace it with 'Joë' or 'Jôe' or 'Jœ'. Instead, try 'Joey' or 'Joseph'. Category:Guides Category:Newbies